this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
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[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago

First, it needs to be clear that what happened was the growth of kidneys in pig embryos. This has not gotten to the point of full sized organs in a pig that's viable.

Second, this is a single step along the much more difficult path to growing human or humanized organs in pigs. While it is pretty damn huge news within that research, it's nothing we're likely to see turn into a patient available technology any time in the next twenty years.

What they did was find a way to get a pig embryo to grow kidneys that are humanized. This means that they're mostly human cells, but not entirely. Vascular cells in particular remain porcine.

They did this by erasing the genes for kidney formation from the original cells, then inserting human cells. Without the code to grow its own kidneys, the embryo doesn't block the attempts of the human cells to do so. They then fill that role.

The embryos are then harvested and examined, and we get the data filtered through the science writers. Alas, even the Guardian uses flashy headlines, so it looks like something other than what it is.

The real headline should be something like "key step in research towards growing human transplantable organs in animals achieved." And it is a key step. But it's maybe step 10/100+

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Prof Dusko Ilic, a stem cell scientist at King’s College London, who was not involved in the research, described the work as pioneering but said any clinical applications would not happen in the foreseeable future. “As the authors admitted, there are plenty of challenges,” he said. “Will this approach prove to be the ultimate solution? Only time holds the answer.”

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

More like torture and suffering of sentient beings. It's some fucking Mengele shit.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

In what way is it torture and suffering, do explain. Research animals almost without exception have better quality of life than industrial farms.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

On industrial farms there is zero quality of life so it's not exactly a high bar...

How are we getting these organs out? Killing them and then removing them? Or are we going to grow clusters and cut them out when needed?

It sounds like a dystopian nightmare to me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They perform exactly the same function in the animals as they do for us, so they grow in the same location. Yes the animals would be butchered in the removal process. Why is that any more dystopian than killing them at a butcher?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think both show a fundamental lack of empathy for any living thing other than humans.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

So essentially no worse than the factory farms of today, you admit. Except, this one actually saves lives.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Factory farms are also an aberration and a crime against sentient beings. This just adds a dollop more "cruel and unusual" and it's not saving lives it's torturing and sacrificing one feeling, thinking, and intelligent life so a human can live another 5 years.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Well that's an excessively low bar.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

So we're making pigoons.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 10 months ago

that's really neat, but all I can think of is what their bacon would taste like...